Pahor Frustrated at Conference Absentees

The conference, which aimed to present a common front in the region’s path towards EU integration, was overshadowed by the boycott of the Serbian president, Boris Tadic, triggering the absence of major European politicians.

Pahor warned that the European Union “underestimates” the Western Balkans, adding: “Everybody needs everybody and everybody needs to recognise everybody.”

He praised Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Nikola Spiric who, according to Pahor, “was under tremendous pressure” not to participate in this conference.

Jadranka Kosor, prime minister of Croatia, added “Spiric showed that he was courageous”.

The prime minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country that has not recognised an independent Kosovo, left the meeting when Kosovo’s Hashim Thaci made his speech. He returned after the speech.

Despite diplomatic efforts, Serbian president Boris Tadic refused to participate in today's gathering in Slovenia, where representatives of Kosovo's institutions were present. Serbia refuses to recognise Kosovo's independence, which was declared more than two years ago.

Tadic’s refusal to participate in the meeting also had a domino effect with invited high-ranking politicians such as Europe’s president Herman Van Rompey and Spanish minister of foreign affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos deciding not to be present at the conference, entitled 'Together for the European Union: Contribution of the Western Balkans to the European Future'.

Six prime ministers from the region arrived in Brdo, including the co-hosts Croatia's Jadranka Kosor and Slovenia's Borut Pahor, as well as the Chairman of Bosnia's Council of Ministers Nikola Spiric, Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, and Montenegrin PM Milo Djukanovic.

Only Kosovo’s Thaci and his Albanian counterpart Berisha were willing to talk to journalists before the conference started.

“Our vision is cooperation and not boycott,” Kosovo’s prime minister said at the doorstep.

Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha stated that Tadic‘s place was at this conference, adding that he regretted that the Serbian president had decided not to participate.

The only politician from Brussels that decided to participate in the conference was enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele, who stated that one day the whole region will become part of EU.

"I beleive that this conference is an important step in the right direction and that regional cooperation will be for the benefit of all," Fuele said.

Today’s meeting launched the so-called ‘Brdo process’, which will lead to a series of similar meetings.

The participants issued a joint declaration calling on the European Union to “maintain the enlargement process high on its agenda and promote mechanisms of regional cooperation aimed at further strengthening the process of integration in the region”. 

They also reiterated in the document a joint commitment to the promotion of good neighbourly relations, through continuous work on projects of common interest and “investing our best efforts in addressing open bilateral issues in a European spirit”.
 
The next time all politicians from the western Balkans will meet will be in late spring in Sarajevo, where the Spanish EU presidency intends to organise a “high-level meeting” between the EU and the region.